1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the applying of handles to articles and the taping together of articles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
British Patent Specification No. 1383108 discloses an apparatus for use in fitting to a carton a handle consisting of a piece of adhesive tape and a piece of opaque paper adhering to the adhesive side of the middle section of the piece of adhesive tape, which is adhered at both ends to shoulders of the carton. The apparatus includes a conveying device for intermittently moving the carton along a path to a handle-applying station, a turntable adjacent the path and intermittently angularly displaceable about a vertical axis, in unison with the intermittent movement of the conveying device, the turntable including suction pads to take up tape around its periphery, a cutting device for cutting off the tape on the turntable to give predetermined lengths forming the handles, extensible press arms within the turntable and distributed in pairs therearound for displacing the ends of the handle pieces off the periphery of the turntable at the above station to press those ends onto the carton, and a stop plate interposable between the turntable and the path, during extension of the press arms, to intercept the middle section of each handle piece to prevent contact of the middle section with the carton to form a gap for receiving the fingers of the purchaser of the carton. This system utilizes a bulky and complicated apparatus; it also employs an adhesive handle, which in turn requires a non-adhesive covering at the middle section for grasping by the purchaser. Moreover, the handle can move relative to the plate during attaching of the handle to the carton, so that the handle becomes incorrectly positioned on the carton. Furthermore, the advancing of the carton is interrupted for the attaching of the handle.
European Patent Specification No. 0174015 describes a system similar to that just described but with the significant differences that the adhesive handle is applied to an article comprised of two or more packs integrally packaged or wrapped, and that the turntable is replaced by a drum rotating about a horizontal axis parallel to the path of the articles. This system again utilizes a bulky and complicated apparatus and employs an adhesive handle requiring a non-adhesive covering . Once again, the handle can move relative to the plate during attaching and the advancing of the article is interrupted for the attaching of the handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,256 discloses a system that forms a ladder-like tape assembly, applies the assembly to a series of bottles moving spaced-apart along a conveyor with a transverse tape aligned with each bottle, and then severs the side tapes between the bottles and adheres the severed portions thereto to provide flexible bails for the bottles. The two side tapes have pressure-sensitive adhesive on their inside surfaces in order to adhere to the bottles and to the outside surfaces of the two end zones of each transverse tape, whilst each transverse tape has pressure-sensitive adhesive at the inside surfaces of its two end zones in order to adhere to its bottle. The means for forming the transverse tapes preferably forms them from a pressure - sensitive - adhesive - coated web having a width corresponding to the length of the bails desired, and a second web having a width less than that of the first web. Means are included for laminating the second web centrally on the adhesive - coated surface of the first web, as are means for transversely severing the laminate thus formed to provide the bails. This system again utilizes a bulky and complicated apparatus and employs an adhesive handle requiring a non-adhesive covering.
A system of taping together a plurality of liquid-containing, rectangular-section cartons is known in which the packs are fed horizontally to a side-taping station at which the cartons are attached together by automatically applying horizontally along the respective opposite sides of the cartons respective adhesive tapes. The apparatus employed includes two reels disposed at respective opposite sides of the path of the cartons and on which respective rolls of adhesive tape are mounted for rotation about respective vertical axes. It also includes two perforating devices at respective opposite sides of the path for perforating the tapes each along a top edge band and a bottom edge band, to enable the cartons to be more easily separated by the purchaser. The system thereby produces row-form groups of two or more cartons wherein the cartons of each group are side - taped together.
A similar system is known from European Patent Specification No. 0135360, in which the rolls of adhesive tape are mounted for rotation about horizontal axes and apply respective tapes to the top and bottom of the cartons. Perforating rollers perforate each tape with spaced rows of perforations arranged to be located between adjacent cartons, each fifth row, say, containing more perforations. There are means for breaking the tapes at each fifth row to separate the cartons into groups of five, say. Such means comprises a pressure roller arranged to engage the top surface of the cartons and a cam roller spaced behind the pressure roller by a distance not greater than the distance between alternate cartons. The cam roller is formed with a projection and disposed immediately below the cartons to rotate once during the passage of every five cartons, say. The projection will engage the underside of every fifth carton and lift the carton to fracture the top and bottom tapes between it and the carton immediately ahead, which is held down by the pressure roller. A difficulty with this system is that the cartons in each group should be firmly compressed together to give a solid feel to the article constituted by each group, yet such firm compression of the advancing line of cartons militates against lifting of every fifth carton, say, to fracture the tapes.
A somewhat similar system, but without perforation of the tapes, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,456,059, wherein an advancing line of cartons are tightly pressed together and are maintained in that condition during the application of top and bottom tapes and until an adhesive employed has become substantially set. Then the tapes are severed by means of knives so as to separate the cartons into groups of two or more. A difficulty with this system is that the relative positions of the knives, the tapes and the cartons must be very accurately maintained, otherwise the knives cut into walls of the cartons and/or fail to sever the tapes.